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The National Institutes of Health spends about $42 billion on medical research each year, but less than one-eighth of that money is spent specifically on women’s health. That may come as a bit of a shock, given that women make up a majority – about 51% – of the population. This underserved market is a huge economic opportunity for med tech companies. That’s what Holly Rockweiler discovered as a Fellow at the Stanford Byers Center for Bio Design. So she put her background in biomedical engineering to work and started Madorra Medical, developing solutions to improve the vaginal atrophy and dryn ..read more

Surgery is not usually considered a spectator sport, but an OR is often filled with the surgical team, colleagues, residents, and medical device clinical representatives, in addition to a patient and equipment. Now Avail Medsystems, based in Silicon Valley, has created a way to increase learning, collaboration, and idea-sharing in the OR – while reducing the headcount – by connecting physicians and care teams to remote experts and device industry representatives during medical procedures.  The Avail surgical telepresence platform is a hardware and software platform that enables instant ..read more

For most MedTech devices, the path to development starts with defining a market need, then creating a technology to fill that need. But sometimes innovation lies in finding a new application for an existing technology. And sometimes the inspiration can come from a totally unexpected place. Such was the case for Venk Varadan, indie film producer-turned MedTech CEO of Nanowear, a wearable diagnostic device for cardiac patients. Nanowear adapted a unique sensor technology originally designed to provide data-rich sonar for submarines and high-flying aircraft, to create a cloth nanotechnology, whi ..read more

Before any med-tech entrepreneur can bring a product to market, he or she must prove the technology will work reliably. Transforming a nascent technology like digital microfluidics into an intuitive product is not easy. But it doesn’t take a seasoned engineer to understand that you’ll need to evaluate multiple iterations of the device in order to develop a system that will work as intended. In Episode 21 Andy Rogers and Key Tech Senior Computer Engineer, and Partner, Lei Zong talk about creating test platforms that will collect essential raw data and turn it into useful information to speed u ..read more

Everybody likes to feel warm and cozy, but we all know someone that can’t keep themselves warm. This is a particular problem for women who have undergone preventive or therapeutic mastectomies. The implants used in reconstructive surgery often feel cold, literally chilling women to the core. Kristen Carbone designed Brilliantly Warm, a wearable technology to solve a problem that she had herself: keeping warm following a preventive double mastectomy and implant reconstruction. A former museum curator, Kristen had no background in engineering or business, but she had a powerful idea. She starte ..read more

Each year, millions of people in the U.S. require some sort of neurosurgery due to injury, disease, or genetic condition. They often undergo multiple procedures and face long, painful recoveries. This inspired Jesse Christopher to start tinkering with his kid’s toys in his garage, which was the beginning of Longeviti Neuro Solutions. Starting from this humble beginning, Longeviti pioneered the development of a low-profile intracranial device platform in 2016, in partnership with Johns Hopkins: the first customizable platform to address a growing need for patients undergoing complex brain surg ..read more

Coagusense developed the first point-of-care prothrombin time/Internationalized Normalized Ratio (PT/INR) monitoring system for cardiac patients to help them maintain warfarin dosage within a therapeutic range. In the latest version of their device, they actually removed connectivity features to accommodate the needs of their older, less-tech-savvy self-testers. Therefore, they had to go back to the FDA with more bench data for re-approval.  Andy Rogers talked with Mike Acosta, EVP/Head of Compliance at Coagusense, and later recapped some of the lessons learned with Senior Electrical Eng ..read more

There’s nothing like finding a partner with a map when you're exploring new territory. CoaguSense developed the first point-of-care prothrombin time/Internationalized Normalized Ratio (PT/INR) monitoring system for cardiac patients who have been prescribed warfarin. Their Coag-Sense® device monitors blood clotting rates and helps patients maintain rates within a therapeutic range. It’s designed for both professionals and patient self-testers. As with any MedTech device, there were plenty of regulatory hoops to jump through. So they looked for outside help and found it with Greenlight Guru, a c ..read more

As medical devices keep advancing, the consumables used in testing and therapeutics are moving forward as well, far beyond grandpa’s diabetes test strips. New semiconductors, circuitry, and sensors, along with automated production, bring a whole new spectrum of functionality within reach for consumables.  The burgeoning at-home market is driving demand and the growth of body-worn therapeutics and delivery devices. But with new functionality comes new risks, and among the biggest risks is human error. To paraphrase Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can be misused, will be misused.”   Com ..read more